Compressor for tyres

Hi chaps. I'm soon to need new tyres, and thought it was time I learned to change them myself. I can get tyre irons and rim protectors for a tenner on ebay, but I'll need a fast air compressor to seat it afterwards. Any suggestions for an affordable one I could keep in the garage?

@Beresford wrote:Of course a big compressor is nice to have in the garage, but you don't necessarily need one to seat and inflate a tyre.

Really? You reckon I could get away with one of the 12V Compact jobs that are going cheap on ebay? I got the impression that it needs a lot of air really fast to seat it on the rim, but really I'd rather have something small as garage space is limited.

Those little things are good at increasing pressure, but not delivering large amounts of air quickly. Sometimes Aldi or Lidl sell them for a good price. Check machine mart when they have a VAT free day too.

I have a dewalt one and it's great, but my tyre shop only charges £10 to change and balance a tyre....

@Beresford wrote:Of course a big compressor is nice to have in the garage, but you don't necessarily need one to seat and inflate a tyre.

Really? You reckon I could get away with one of the 12V Compact jobs that are going cheap on ebay? I got the impression that it needs a lot of air really fast to seat it on the rim, but really I'd rather have something small as garage space is limited.

I carry one of those little 12 volt compressors in the bike and seal the rim using a lightweight ratchet strap also carried under the seat. Works a treat and total cost is under £10.

You don't need a compressor, it just makes it easier. I've done it with a bicycle track pump and pumping like fuck (essentially). It takes a bit of luck. Plus you should take the valve core out, if you can.

In order to get any of the beads to seat, by any method, you need to inflate the tyre (so the beads need to 'kinda' be in the right place), the pressure then forces the bead of the tyre into the 'lip' (wrong word) on the wheel rim which is the 'pop' , 'pop' noise you hear as both beads seat. This is easier to achieve if you have a large volume of air under pressure available.

Anyway, before you get to the bead-seating part you need to get the new tyres on and the old tyres off (not in that order), which, in my experience of these things, is often more difficult to do by hand.

You'll also need some lube. It's also best if you don't really care about your rims. The rim protectors can be made to work but things don't always work out well IME... I didn't care, so it didn't matter.

The main thing is to make sure that the 'other' side of the tyre is pressed into the well of wheel to make slack for you to be able to lever the side you are working on over the rim.

I don't want to put you off (I didn't manage to put myself off), it's just probably best to know it isn't always as easy as people on youtube make it seem; they often have either soft dirtbike tyres or soft racing slicks, both of which stretch a bit more than 'our' kind of tyres.

I'm fully expecting the job to be a real bastard, I've had bicycle rim/tyre combos which were abominable so I expect this to be similar but with larger tools. I'm going to break the bead with G clamps, and I'm reliably informed that windowlene makes a good lubricant for the job.

Hi Basil last year I bought a wolf 50 ltr 2.5 hp compressor 116 psi that came with air line , tyre inflator, spray gun, and an air blower gun and the current price is £150 I reckon that should sort your tyres

or if you go on the wolf website there is plenty of different sizes of compressors on there but I have to say the tyre inflator that came with mine was crap so I ended up buying a decent one on the internet